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Vashkadai Qan
Vashkadai Qan is a Chaos Space Marine of the Shadow Reavers warband, leading the Brotherhood of bikers known as the Alacritous Host. He hails from the steppes of Chogoris and that world’s ancient defenders, the White Scars. Their love for speed’s thrill made him turn from the Emperor’s light and into the embrace of Slaanesh, leading three squads of his biker brothers to become a renegade speed cult, but joined the Shadow Reavers after fighting side by side with them against the reawakened Necrons of planet Skaldris. History Vashkadai was born on Chogoris among that planet's feudal tribesmen. The son of a local chieftain and a powerful warrior during his youth, his riding skills were unsurpassed among his peers. This prowess eventually drew the attention of the White Scars' recruiters and he was initiated into the chapter's neophytes. Taking to the geneseed and surviving the grueling training and implantation process, in time Vashkadai matured to a full battle brother. In several decades, he was promoted to Sergeant, serving as such in the chapter's 3rd Company, the Eagle Brotherhood. Yet even for a White Scar, Vashkadai's love of speed was bordering on obsessive. His bike was never fast enough, the wind in his hair never strong enough. He requested modifications to his wargear, but the techmarines turned him down, for his desires were tech-heretical. In the end, during a foray into the Maelstrom Zone, the obsession had escalated to such a level that Vashkadai stopped following orders, and the chapter's Chaplains got involved. By this time, Vashkadai's fall was inevitable, and he ran from the Emperor's light, taking several like-minded with him. Hiding in the dark corners of the world, eventually they escaped the grasp of their vengeful brothers and headed for the Maelstrom, with Vashkadai taking the title 'Qan' in mockery of his chapter. Skaldris Incursion Roaming through Warp space, the heretic Scars rode from planet to planet, attempting to overrun one another in competitions of sheer velocity. Killing anyone that threatened them, they would leave the planet when bored and go to ride and fight somewhere else. Finally venturing outside the Maelstrom and reaching the abandoned planet Skaldris, those that remained of the White Scars rode across its empty desert plains for a time. It was a tidal locked world, half of whose surface was dead desert, and the other half deepest snow and ice. As the months passed and the White Scars explored the world's places, they realized they were not alone. At times, blue fire would light up the sky. First months apart, then weeks. Soon, Space Marines came, exploring the world. And one day, it was the Shadow Reavers, a warband of Chaos, that made planetfall. Hours within their landing, the Chaos Space Marines were assaulted by Necrons, reawakening slowly from the dark side of Skaldris. Gauss fire echoed through the valleys, and the White Scars decided to ride closer and investigate. Seeing their brothers in Chaos waylaid by columns of metallic alien monsters, Vashkadai bade the White Scars forward, and they charged into the fray. As the Reavers' forces slowly faltered under the unstoppable onslaught, the White Scars crashed into the Necron line's left flank, collapsing it in its entirety. Gaining a second wind, the Reavers' forces fought on, and managed to drive back the Necrons and force them into regrouping. Of the White Scars, only Vashkadai remained. With no way off the planet, he struck a deal with the Shadow Reavers, and decided to aid them for the time being. However, with the Imperial fleet approaching, the Shadow Reavers' Battle Barge Caliginis Rex had retreated, leaving the landed contingents stranded. Together with Vashkadai, they fought their way through the many Imperial ambushes, and eventually fortified themselves within an underground cavern. The Necron Dynasty that ruled the world grew larger by the day, and soon the Imperium found their attention turned solely towards the xenos. Soon, the Caliginis Rex returned with reinforcements from the Slaaneshi pirates of the Porphyr Elixis, and the Reavers sallied forth from the caverns, utilizing the Imperium's distractedness to strike a way out. In the chaos, the Necrons were able to reactivate long-dormant planetary defense systems and drive the Imperium off their world. The Shadow Reavers and Vashkadai were extracted quickly, and the Necrons seemingly let the Heretic Astartes leave unscathed; for whatever reason, Vashkadai still wonders. Making their way back to the Reavers' home world of Krypteia IV, Vashkadai was impressed by the Heretic Astartes' stronghold, especially its endless and vast expanses of empty desert, and decided to join the warband. Sent on a pilgrimage to the Black Planet, the Daemon World where the Shadow Reavers had acquired their daemonic gift, Vashkadai set off, roaming the Eye of Terror on his bike, hopping from planet to planet until eventually, after twelve years of searching, he had found the world. Swearing his fealty then to its master, the Black Prince, he emerged likewise with the Black Planet's gift, tendrils of pitch darkness dancing wistfully around his form, obscuring him from sight, and muffling his steps to others. Upon his return, the Krypteian Techarchy, Krypteia's local hereteks, fashioned vox amplifier implants to imitate the Shadow Reavers' geneseed flaw of super-hearing, thereby amplifying all sounds Vashkadai could hear a thousandfold, turning even the slightest murmur into a deafening cacophony. Now the Reavers' equal, Vashkadai soon rose through their ranks and became one of their fiercest warriors. The Dark Imperium When Cadia fell in 999.M41, the Reavers set out to join their masters the Red Corsairs in a trap laid out for the resurrected Primarch Guilliman. As the UItramarines' fleet was passing a great ship graveyard fashioned by the Corsairs themselves, the Chaos Space Marines' vessels, hiding among the wreckage, sprung to life and assailed the Crusade. Capturing many, Huron Blackheart's forces, accompanied by the monstrosity Kairos Fateweaver, brought the Primarch to his knees. The prisoners and spoils were transported to Lord Blackheart's own Black Fortress. However, as the Red Corsairs and their vassals the Shadow Reavers recuperated on board the fortress, counting their spoils, a Khornate fleet manifested itself and attacked, attempting to claim the Primarch Guilliman for themselves. In the thick of the fray, Shadow Captain Antoninus, who had grown to be Vashkadai's closest friend and confidant, found himself isolated from his Brotherhood of Chosen, the Tenebrarii, and surrounded on all sides by baying Khorne cultists and Berzerkers. Terrible their assault was, yet the dextrous servant of Slaanesh was able to outmaneuvre their blind fury, dodging swinging axes and chainswords. Where he would find himself overwhelmed, or his lightning claw and power sword insufficient, the Doom Siren upon his back would open room to retreat or move. He shouted for all Reavers nearby to coalesce on his position, eschewing his armour’s vox modulator, for he knew his natural infrasound voice would go undetected by his enemies. Vashkadai knew he would have to save the Shadow Captain's skin again. He revved up his bike, crashing into the enemy with full force and sending them flying, slowly trudging through their number. Another voice rang out, clear and maddeningly loud, echoing painfully within Vashkadai’s skull. Above the din of battle, he could hear the screaming commands of the enemy’s Chaos Lord, and quickly ascertained his position. Antoninus called to Vashkadai again, as he himself moved against the Khornate Lord. Being able to hear perfectly the Khornates' commands, the Shadow Lord used this knowledge to maneuvre past them successfully, blasting away any opposition with his Doom Siren until he stood before the Chaos Lord of Khorne himself. The Lord swung, but Antoninus’s shadowed form was hard to hit. Rousing the Chaos Lord’s ire, the faster Antoninus circled around the fighter long enough. Vashkadai turbo-boosted, charging at supersonic speeds and slammed into the Khornate, crushing the Chaos Lord under his wheels. A red streak trailing from his broken frame, the Khornate dragged himself with murderous purpose towards a dropped chainaxe. “It... It matters not...” - Vashkadai heard the Khornate mouth through coughs of blood, “whence the blood flows! So long as-” His tirade was cut short by Vashkadai’s power fist pressing upon his head. By the time the Galaxy finally broke and was cleft in twain by the Crimson Path, Vashkadai Qan had become the Shadow Lord of the Reavers' Brotherhood of bikers the Alacritous Host. Yet he left the Brotherhood and the warband for a time, pledging his services directly to their Red Corsairs masters, for Huron Blackheart planned an assault on Chogoris itself, and Vashkadai desired greatly to slaughter its populace. As the rift in realspace swelled, the Maelstrom itself engorged and came to swallow part of the world. In M42 the Red Corsairs, already besieging the world, roamed unabated through its vast steppes, killing at will and building vast ziggurats from the dead. Vashkadai fought beside them, personally killing his birth tribe to the last man, one by one in single combat. Bloodied so in the blood of his kin, he returned to Krypteia IV and the Shadow Reavers, eager for the slaughter the new millennium would bring. Appearance and Personality Oiled, scented, and with moustache groomed, Vashkadai's skin glistens and shines with an almost daemonic allure, smelling perpetually of something sweet, yet at the same time horrifying. Golden earrings and piercings adorn many, many parts of his body. Nary a scratch breaks his form, a fact he is proud of. Most of his body is uncovered and naked, for Vashkadai desires to feel the wind blow against his skin as he rides. Heavy gold chains trail across his muscular form, holding together a plate with the engraved symbol of Slaanesh across his chest. Lord Vashkadai Qan is boisterous, proud and jovial in his simple cruelty and decadence. While never considered the brightest commander, he is nevertheless effective, owing to his instinctual low-level cunning. Some have jokingly likened Vashkadai to an Ork: simple in his mannerisms, but cunningly brutal and very, very effective. Of course, those who have used the comparison have all died, for the arrogance of Vashkadai would not abide for him to be compared to a filthy alien. While he finds the Reavers' veneration of silence strange and off-putting at times, he finds extreme and bittersweet pain in the senselessness of their halls, while outside them his hearing implants, mimicking the Reavers' flaw and amplifying all that reaches his ears to deafening levels, provide constant sweet, blissful pain-pleasure to Qan. Above all, Vashkadai desires the thrill of riding his bike, faster and faster. Unlike his loyalist brothers of the White Scars, the Reavers have been more than happy to oblige his perfectionist streak, and Vashkadai's bike maintains a constant stream of tech-heretical updates as its flaws are culled, leaving only the perfect form, the speed engine that will one day ride the fastest of all. For that is Vashkadai's sole dream: to be the fastest there ever was. Day and night he rides the open desert wastes of Krypteia IV, honing his skills. Slaanesh, the god of sacred perfection, could demand nothing less, and Vashkadai knows that whenever he rides the Chaos God's eyes are turned towards him, watching and witnessing. Skills and Equipment A consummate rider, Vashkadai's speed is unmatched among his warband. He rides regularly through busy hive streets, never decelerating, and never crashing. He has even developed riding maneuvers to utilize cover more appropriately, and has even become proficient at riding unnoticed, thanks to the daemonic gifts of the Black Planet, the haze of Warp darkness surrounding him, and aided by the tech-heretical gadgets built into his bike. Vashkadai is also an accomplished warrior, and terrifying when in a charge. His bike is like an extension of himself, as much a weapon as his wargear, and he has been known to parry with a raised spinning front wheel. He is particularly fond of running his prey over, crushing them under the machine's heavy frame; yet he is equally at home slashing with his lightning claw or smashing with his power fist. Indeed, his close-quarters combat prowess is among the most venerable of the Shadow Reavers. When leading the biker Brotherhood the Alacritous Host, his force of will and well-humoured charisma inspire the men under his command to follow him without question. In all that he does, Vashkadai exudes confidence, and inadvertently pushes those under him to go above and beyond, striving for excellence. In battle, Vashkadai Qan rides atop his magnificent, sonic barrier-breaking bike Vector Rapientis. ''Honed to perfection, the bike can outrun many of its kind. Like all Shadow Reaver bikes, it works by utilizing a tech-heretical nuclear reactor design fashioned by the Krypteian Techarchy, making its engine's work completely silent, which Vashkadai Qan detests. It is also fitted with smoke grenade launchers and a plethora of sensor-scrambling apparatuses. Attached to his body is the ''Mantle of the Helmounter, a primordial suit of daemonic armour. Parts of the armour have embedded themselves under, and merged with, Vashkadai's skin, leaving his torso bare yet never relinquishing its protective strength. Working using the Space Marine's own metabolism, it requires no backpack to function, though Vashkadai's caloric intake is abnormally huge to compensate. Atop the Rapientis is a flayed skin banner taken from an Imperial Guard gunnery crewman who had once dismounted Vashkadai, paying with his life for such insolence. The banner is topped with a Sigil of Corruption. Traversing so, Vashkadai strikes at his enemies with his lightning claw Eagle's Edge and power fist Nudarga. Category:Chaos Category:Chaos Space Marines Category:Chaos Lords Category:Chaos Characters Category:Slaanesh Category:Chaos Space Marine Characters